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Mason Decker’s goal lifts Streator to 1-0 victory over Ottawa · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Mason Decker's goal lifts Streeter to 1-0 victory over Ottawa.
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  Speaker 1: Written by Brian Hoxie. This article is being read by
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  Speaker 1: an automated voice brought to you by Everlit. Streeter sophomore
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  Speaker 1: midfielder Mason Decker said he felt something good was about
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  Speaker 1: to happen as he and his Bulldogs teammates were keeping
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  Speaker 1: the ball in the Ottawa defensive end midway through the
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  Speaker 1: second half in the final match of Saturday's Streeter Invitational
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  Speaker 1: Boys soccer tournament. at the James Street Rec area in Streeter.
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  Speaker 1: We were making a lot of really good passes and
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  Speaker 1: keeping the pressure on Ottawa defensively, Decker said. Then Camden
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  Speaker 1: Darrow ripped a shot. Ottawa's goalkeeper Landry Brenbarger dove for
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  Speaker 1: it and missed, but it deflected it off the post
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  Speaker 1: to me. I was just in the right place at
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  Speaker 1: the right time and was able to kick it in.
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  Speaker 1: Stratter coach Huey is always talking about crashing the net,
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  Speaker 1: and that's really just what I was doing, and it
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  Speaker 1: worked out. Decker's goal, with just over 12 minutes remaining,
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  Speaker 1: proved to be the lone tally in the Bulldogs' 1-0
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  Speaker 1: victory over the Pirates. Streeter goalkeepers Colin Byers, three saves,
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  Speaker 1: and J.J. Martinez, two, combined for the shutout. Brenbarger recorded
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  Speaker 1: nine saves for the Pirates. Streeter improved to 2-1-2 on
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  Speaker 1: the season, while Ottawa dropped to 1-3-1. It's been a
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  Speaker 1: good start of the season for us, but I think
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  Speaker 1: we also put a lot of work in during the
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  Speaker 1: offseason to get better, Decker said. I thought we played
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  Speaker 1: pretty well in all three matches, and we'll keep working
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  Speaker 1: to get better as the season goes along. At the event,
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  Speaker 1: Streeter opened with a 2-0 loss to Mendota, then tied
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  Speaker 1: Bloomington 2-2. Ottawa fell to Bloomington 2-1 and Mendota 4-0.
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  Speaker 1: Bloomington defeated Mendota 1-0 to earn the tournament title. I
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  Speaker 1: thought we played very strong all three matches, Huey said.
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  Speaker 1: This last one with Ottawa, you could see both teams
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  Speaker 1: were running out of gas a little bit but we
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  Speaker 1: found a way to finish the tournament off with a win.
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  Speaker 1: This tournament is always a good early season indicator of
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  Speaker 1: where your team is at. We start Illinois Central 8
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  Speaker 1: conference play next week, and I feel really good about
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  Speaker 1: where we are at and how we are playing right now.
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  Speaker 1: This was a good, solid all-around day for us. In
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  Speaker 1: Ottawa's loss to Bloomington, Robert Poellier scored off an assist
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  Speaker 1: from Alexio Fernandez. We were slow getting back on defense
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  Speaker 1: on the counter, and they put the ball in the
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  Speaker 1: back of the net. Ottawa coach Greg Hughes said about
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  Speaker 1: the loss to Streeter, I thought throughout the three matches
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  Speaker 1: we did a really good job defensively of limiting really
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  Speaker 1: good scoring chances for our opponents, but the ones we allowed,
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  Speaker 1: they capitalized. The three teams we played are all very good,
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  Speaker 1: and that's in part because they take advantage of mistakes.
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  Speaker 1: On the flip side, I thought we did a pretty
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  Speaker 1: good job of possessing the ball, but we just aren't
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  Speaker 1: creating enough good scoring chances, and the ones we are,
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  Speaker 1: we aren't finishing. We'll keep working on doing better in
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  Speaker 1: that aspect. Coming off our loss to Roanoke-Benson, the things
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  Speaker 1: we talked about, our wings were playing too high, and
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  Speaker 1: we weren't covering the middle well, we did a much
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  Speaker 1: better job with our positioning. Ottawa and Streeter are both
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  Speaker 1: back in action Tuesday. The Pirates host Illinois Valley Central,
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  Speaker 1: while the Bulldogs entertain Reed Custard.